The baths ended up actually not being great. They were mostly populated by fat old people and they were just really crowded. And the changing rooms and locker room areas were just kinda gross. I don’t know. All in all it was more like a public pool, which I suppose makes sense. It wasn’t like a hot spring in the middle of the woods or something.

And just shut the fuck up before you say oh this is an opportunity to slow down or whatever the fuck. There are roughly 16 waking hours in any given day. I can only consciously chew my food or watch the sunset or meditate or nap for so fucking long, you know?

For the first few days we were sort of walking around like zombies - as I'm sure most would feel having "moved" to a city you'd never been to, to occupy an apartment you'd never seen before. We were just getting the lay of the land. Who has the best coffee. Who has the cheapest cup of decent tea. The freshest pastries. The best dinner deal. Where are the free wifi spots. The good gelato.

It was like when I went to see the Mona Lisa in Paris. I was like, ok, cool - it's an old ass famous ass painting - now get me the fuck out of here and away from these frumperific losers with their kids on leashes.

By chef I mean magician because this thai food wasn't like anything else I've ever put in my mouth. I had a creamy peanutty sauce with chicken over coconut rice and Kris had a fried rice dish that was layered with so many amazing flavors that shot off like fireworks in your mouth. The majority of the dishes were 6 pounds too. A goddamn steal.

On our way down we stopped in Liverpool to go to Central Perk - an "exact replica" of the coffee shop from Friends. It was totally novel, but the food was absolute crap. They had the big orange couch though, and lots of large TVs playing episodes of the show, so that was really fun.

We fucked off downstairs for coffee at Fig + Sparrow, which is on the ground level of James’ apartment building, and then went to Sunday dinner at The Blue Pie with James. We had cheesy cauliflower, beans, carrots, roasted potatoes, yorkshire pudding and a big slice of lamb all drowning in gravy.

All I am bringing with me is one backpack (a small book bag-type bag, not a big REI backpacking rig) and a small purse. I laid all my crap out and took a photo so you'd have a visual and I can explain everything:

Melissa has a super cute renovated house in New Haven. She made up her sofa bed with shit tons of pillows and blankets so we slept in this great nest all week. And the whole week was just - coffee, breakfast and conversation in the morning, relaxing days, and cooking + wine + more conversation at dinner and late into the night.

Today we had an easy afternoon flight from Dublin. We landed in NYC at 6pm and weren’t too messed up from jetleg — it’s easier going this way and with the shorter flight. It was 6pm NYC time and only 11pm Dublin time so we weren’t totally fried yet. From the airport we took a train to Grand Central Station and had dinner at our favorite buffet around the corner.

We headed back to Bill's - the Airbnb host we had stayed with in London at the beginning of our trip. Bill actually had Airbnb guests that night, but was nice enough to let us "couch surf" on his comfy sectional sofa in the living room. I was feeling a little under the weather, but not wanting to admit it.

Janina even packed us a lunch for the flight! They are just the nicest people ever. We got into London, hopped on a train and headed to our airbnb host’s place for the night. It ended up being one of the strangest places we stayed.

The flight was easy, and it was so nice to arrive in Germany with a friend to pick us up from the airport. Very relaxing to not have to figure out a bus or a train or directions or anything. We were staying with Kris’ friend, Olaf, and his wife, Janina, and their two daughters. I had never met them before, but they were instant friends. Some of the nicest, warmest people you’d ever want to meet.

I was rambling on and on about something and I said, "Do you sometimes wish I had an off switch?" He said, "No! Of course not." Then a few minutes later he said, "Well, if you had an off switch - I'd turn you off and fuck you in your ass."

We arrived in Milan and started wandering around. It was such a bullshit city. Everything was dirty and there was tons of awful graffiti everywhere. Everyone was rude, there was tons of traffic and it just looked like any other random city. There was nothing special about Milan.